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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Students counterprotest Brother Jed

Junior Sarah Huston of R.A.I.S.E. (Raising Awareness of Interactions in Sexual Encounters) hands out free condoms on campus by Brother Jed as he preaches and condemns the crowd. The condoms were originally meant to be handed out because of upcoming Little 500, but when Brother Jed showed up, the group changd course. Huston said they're promoting safe sex and the idea that someone's "not a whore" for having sex.

A student and an evangelist stood in front of a bed of red tulips at the Woodburn Clock Tower.

Brother Jed, who has been preaching at IU since the 1970s, stood in front of a crowd of about 30 students Wednesday afternoon.

He shouted at the crowd and those walking by, telling them to avoid homosexuality and sex before marriage. He quoted lines from the Bible and held signs.

Behind him, IU senior Kaleb Crain yelled along with him, contradicting him.

“Whether you wait till marriage or have sex during Little Five, you are enough,” Crain said.

Crain moved back and forth in his electric wheelchair, holding a cardboard sign with the words “You are enough” scribbled across it.

His red T-shirt stated, “Gay? OK with me!”

Crain has been counterprotesting Brother Jed for years, ever since his freshman year at IU.

When he first came to IU with his partner, they heard Brother Jed speaking to students. But Crain said no one was standing up to his message.

Crain and his partner internalized those messages of hate, he said. Ever since then, Crain has come to spread a message of love to students instead of letting Brother Jed spread his message without opposition.

“IU can’t do anything about Brother Jed being on here because he has the First Amendment right to stand here and say what he needs to say,” Crain said. “But I also have the First Amendment right to stand here and fight with him and put a message of love out from his message of hate.”

Senior Sara Hutson walked along the ledge in front of Brother Jed, passing out condoms to students who walked by.

Hutson had originally come out to pass out condoms for RAISE, a group that promotes safe sex and consent.

The group was distributing messages with the definition of consent on them for Little 500 week when Brother Jed showed up, ?Hutson said.

They decided to bring in more condoms and teach students that sex is a normal part of a healthy relationship and OK to do outside of one, Hutson said.

Students who gathered in the crowd asked Brother Jed questions about purity. They argued his ideas and brought up counterpoints.

Freshman Cheyenne Tankersley was walking back from her gender studies class when she stopped to listen to Brother Jed and the students.

“I personally don’t agree with his views, but I find it interesting to see what he has to say,” Tankersley said. “I think it’s awesome that there’s people coming here and saying the opposite.”

Freshman Tyshaun Jordan said this was his first time seeing Brother Jed speak on campus.

“I feel like us retaliating and people cursing back at him and yelling at him, I feel like that shouldn’t happen,” Jordan said. “I feel like the best way to deal with it is just to ?ignore or just laugh it off.”

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